Expansible shoe trees with tubular heel portions



Nov. 5, 1957 F. P. DE wrr'r 2,311,731

EXPANSIBLE SHOE TREES WITH TUBULAR HEEL PORTIONS Filed June 21. 1955 Inventor Dewitt United States Patent EXPANSIBLE SHOE TREES WITH TUBULAR HEEL PORTIONS Frank P. Dewitt, Auburn, N. Y., assignor to Shoe Form Co. Inc., Auburn, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 21, 1955, Serial No. 516,877 1 Claim. (Cl. 12115.6)

This invention relates to shoe trees and is herein illustrated as embodied in a shoe tree particularly adapted for use with athletic shoes.

It is not uncommon for the users of athletic shoes, which have become wet either from perspiration or use upon a wet field, to throw the shoes in a locker before they have been properly dried. As a result they do not dry uniformly and are stilt and wrinkled when they are removed for reuse. In order that shoe trees may appeal to such users it is necessary that they shall be of simple construction and shall induce the hanging of the shoes in such positions that they will dry uniformly and rapidly.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide trees which are particularly adapted for hanging upon even the simplest and cheapest of projections.

In accordance with a feature of the invention, the illustrated tree has a tubular heel piece which is bent upwardly and forwardly in the shoe and has a straight, tubular terminal portion.

This and other features of the invention will best be understood from the following specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the tree;

Fig. 2 shows the tree positioned in a football shoe and hung upon a nail; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section through the heel piece showing a contractible joint between the sections of the heel piece and a pre-stressed spring opposing such contraction to the condition shown in Fig. 2,

The tree comprises a toe piece of flexible sheet plastic material shaped like the last upon which the shoe was made and provided with inturned bottom flanges 11, 12 leaving an intermediate opening, this being of the general style shown in Fig. 2 of Letters Patent of the United States No. 2,067,381, granted January 12, 1937 upon an application in the name of William I. DeWitt. Also, as illustrated in that patent, the sides of the toe piece are connected by crossed wires 14 joined to the side flanges by studs or rivets 16 and confined at their crossing point within a loop 18 at the forward end of a heel piece 20.

This heel piece is made in two sections of which the forward is a rod 22 and the rearward section is a tube 2,811,731 Patented Nov. 5, 1957 24. These sections are slidably telescoped by passing the rod through a hollow plug 26 at the forward end of the tube 24. This plug is held in position in the tube by indentations 30 such as might be made by a prick punch. Inside the tube the rod 22 is swaged to form a flattened portion 32 which limits the movement on it of a cylindrical block 34 which is slidable within the tube. The rod 22 is extended slightly beyond this block and is engaged with a helical spring 36 the inner end 38 of which is coiled tightly around the extension of the rod. Contraction of the two sections of the heel piece is resisted by the pre-stressed spring the other end of which rests against indentations 40 similar to those used to hold the plug 26 in place.

Beyond this point, the tube 24 of the heel piece is curved upwardly and forwardly and terminates in a tubular portion 42 which is substantially straight and open at its upper end. The straight portion is disposed at an acute angle to the bottom of the toe piece such that it points out of the foot-receiving opening of a shoe in which the tree has been inserted. The curvature of the back end 44 of the heel piece is such that the heel piece may engage smoothly the inside of the back end of the shoe within its counter portion.

By means of the open-ended substantially straight tubular portion 42, the tree, with a shoe S thereon, may readily be hung upon a wall 46 in a closet or locker by dropping this portion 42 over any suitable projection such as the head end of a nail 50 driven downwardly and inwardly at an acute angle to the wall. This leaves not only the sole 52 of the shoe but also the upper 54 thereof out of contact with the wall and in a freely circulating portion of the ambient air where they will dry evenly.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

In a shoe tree, a heel piece, a flexible toe piece engaged by the forward end of the heel piece, said heel piece being contractible and including a tubular section which extends lengthwise to the heel and of the tree and turns upwardly and forwardly to merge with a substantially straight portion disposed at an acute angle to the bottom of the toe piece, said angle being such that the straight portion points out of the foot-receiving opening of a shoe in which the tree has been inserted, said straight portion being open at its upper end to receive a supporting member for suspending the tree and the shoe when the shoe is not being worn.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 641,905 Sutherland Ian. 23, 1900 1,891,900 DeWitt Dec. 27, 1932 2,142,240 DeWitt Jan. 3, 1939 2,275,072 Bradshaw Mar. 3, 1942 2,517,967 Britton Aug. 8, 1950 2,685,699 Norton Aug. 10, 1954 

